Tied Together With a Smile
by onelastwish-x
Summary: In third year, Ron wonders just how close to breaking Hermione is and wants nothing more than to help. Songfic to Tied Together With a Smile by Taylor Swift.


**A/N: Romione! So this songfic came from the thought that…what if, in third year, when Hermione was going through so much and she was feeling tired and lonely and ignored…Ron (not being his usual dense self) noticed? What then? Oh, plus I needed a random guy so just pretend Hermione had a tiny little crush on Cedric Diggory, okay? Takes place in third year.**

**Disclaimers (s): No, I don't own Harry Potter or Taylor Swift's song. Sob. **

**Note: the lyrics should be right, since I got them off her official site. But it doesn't look quite right to me so if you think something is wrong please tell me!**

_Seems the only one who doesn't see your beauty  
Is the face in the mirror looking back at you_

Ron didn't quite understand why Hermione would frown every time she glanced at her reflection in the mirror. It was really very confusing to him. She would catch a glimpse of herself, and her pretty pink lips would immediately curve downwards. Once he asked her why and she just looked at him like he was the stupidest person on Earth. He never bothered her with that afterwards but whenever he saw her scowling at herself in the mirror, he would wonder why she did it yet again.

_You walk around here thinking you're not pretty  
But that's not true, cause I know you..._

"I'm so ugly."

Huh? Ron glanced up at Hermione. What was she saying? Her sparkling brown eyes, her soft pink lips, her smooth cheeks that would flush bright red when embarrassed, her overly curly hair that surrounded her gorgeous face- how was she in any way ugly?

In the end, it was Harry who reassured her of her beauty and non-ugliness (as he was the one with a slight amount of tact and also the one who could better phrase such things) but Ron stared at Hermione for weeks afterwards, wondering how someone so pretty could think she was ugly.__

Hold on, baby, you're losing it  
The water's high, you're jumping into it  
And letting go... and no one knows  
That you cry, but you don't tell anyone

He didn't know about the time turner, but he _did _know that Hermione was overworking herself. She would start her homework the minute she got it. She went to sleep late in the night and woke up early in the morning, claiming she needed to "study ahead." More than once he had shaken her awake from nightmares she had after falling asleep on her homework in the Common Room.

And the whole Scabbers deal was hurting her more than she let on. He could tell, by the way she would rush from class to class with her head down and refuse to talk to anyone. His rat had been important to him, it was true, but he could feel his heart melting when he watched her brush tears away from her eyes.

_That you might not be the golden one  
And you're tied together with a smile  
But you're coming undone_

The Golden Trio. That was their name. It made sense, too. They were each special in their own way. Harry, of course was the boy who lived. Ron (though Harry had to explain it to him) was the joker, the one who lightened them up. And finally Hermione was the bookworm, the good girl, the glue holding them together. She was the reason they had survived until now, the one who both of the boys would die for without a second thought.

But Hermione didn't see it that way. She scoffed at the nickname. "The Golden Trio? Good grief, what will they come up with next? As if I'm golden." She mumbled under her breath as she searched through her bag for an extra quill. "I'm not special…at least not like you guys are." She looked up to smile at the two.

"What are you talking about, Mione?" Ron asked. "You are special. You're smart, and clever, and logical, and er-"

"The perfect homework help?" Hermione added knowingly. "Yeah, right, that's not much of an accomplishment."

"Nice going." Harry whispered in his best friend's ear. "Now she thinks all we care about her for is homework help." His green eyes were troubled as they landed on the sweet girl.

Ron groaned and let his face fall into his hands. Why was it that whenever he tried to be nice to Hermione he always messed up?__

I guess it's true that love was all you wanted  
Cause you're giving it away like it's extra change  
Hoping it will end up in his pocket

Hermione and Ron walked quickly down the hallway, not wanting to be late for Herbology and not wanting to get in trouble for running.

"This never would have happened if you hadn't lost your essay! Which turned out to be under the table anyway!" She muttered feverishly. "And why'd you make me wait? Now if we're late we'll lose all the points I earned yesterday for knowing about- Oh!"

They had bumped into Cedric Diggory. He wrapped an arm around Hermione's waist as she stumbled. "Careful now! Wouldn't want you to fall." 

Hermione blushed and lowered her eyes. "Sorry. It's just- we were running late and I wasn't paying attention to where I was going-" 

"Hey. It's fine No harm, no foul, right?" He winked and walked away, leaving a very pink Hermione staring after him.

"Come on!" Ron pulled her to the greenhouses, barely making it there on time.

"What's with her?" Harry asked, glancing at the dazed girl.

"I don't know," Ron grunted as he scowled and looked out the window. He didn't like the way Cedric Diggory looked at Hermione- his Hermione! That ugly git.

_But he leaves you out like a penny in the rain  
Oh, cause it's not his price to pay  
Not his price to pay...  
_

Hermione had always been good at hiding her emotions, but Ron couldn't believe he had missed this. The tears, the quiet mumbles, the recurrence of the same nightmares over and over again…and exactly how they coincided with Cedric Diggory getting a girlfriend. It wasn't until she started murmuring Cedric's name in her nightmares that he finally understood.

"Mione?" He asked one night as they sat on a couch near the fireplace after he woke her from a thrashing nightmare.

"Yes?" she asked. She was paler than usual, her hands trembling and dark circles under her eyes. He had thought of asking her what her nightmare was about but decided not to, fearing that she might burst into tears.

"You want me to beat up Cedric for you?"

A ghost of a smile fluttered across her face. "Why?"

"He made you cry, didn't he?"

Hermione laughed wryly. "No, Ron. It was just-" Her breath caught in her throat. "I feel like I'll always be alone. Like, nobody would ever love me."

Ron swallowed. "No, Hermione. Why wouldn't anyone love you? You're a great girl and I'm lucky to know you." He felt so uncomfortable and he was sure the color his face rivaled his hair by now, yet her smile made up for it.

"Aww, Ronald!" She leant forward to give him a hug, leaning into him. His ears turned tomato red and he patted her head awkwardly.

___Hold on baby you're losing it  
The water's high you're jumping in to it  
And letting go and no one knows  
That you cry but you don't tell anyone_

"OH SO IT'S MY FAULT THAT SCABBERS DIED?"

"I DIDN'T SAY THAT, I'M JUST SAYING THAT IT'S NATURAL FOR CATS TO HUNT RATS! YOU SHOULDN'T JUDGE CROOKSHANKS FOR THIS!"

"SHUT UP!" He bellowed harshly, barely noticing as she recoiled with fear. The whole common room was watching them and their eyes flitted back and forth as if it were a ping pong match. "IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT! YOU MIGHT AS WELL HAVE KILLED SCABBERS THE DAY YOU GOT THAT BLOODY MAD CAT!"

"YOU SHUT UP, RONALD BILIUS WEASLEY! MY CAT IS PERFECTLY NORMAL!"

"OH GO BURY YOUR HEAD IN ANOTHER BOOK, WHY DON'T YOU?"

Hermione clenched fistfuls of her robes at her sides. "Fine." She said, sounding half- strangled. "I will then. Good-bye, _Weasley_."

She made her way up to the girls dormitory, walking calmly up the stairs. The students in the common room all turned back to what they had been doing, though now they gossiped quietly about the fight. Ron sat down heavily next to Harry.

"That girl, she's mental I tell you! Mental!" He ranted as he ran his fingers through his ginger hair.

"Ron, stop being so mean to Hermione." Harry whispered, his glasses glinting in the sunlight coming from the window.

"What are you talking about? I'm not being mean. She's just getting what she deserves."

"Lavender and Parvati told me that Hermione cries herself to sleep every night and spends half her time worrying about you and Scabbers." His tone turned sympathetic. "Listen, I know Scabbers was important to you but Hermione is important to me."

"She's important to me too," Ron grumbled.

"Then act like it!" Harry threw down the newspaper as his infamous temper came out. "God, Ron, you treat her worse than Draco Malfoy does."

Ron studied the floor resolutely. "I guess I could apologize," he finally mumbled.

"It's a start."

_That you might not be the golden one  
And you're tied together with a smile but you're coming undone_

"Here."

"What do you want now, Ronald?" Hermione refused to look up from her Transfiguration homework. Since that fight in the Common Room, she had been ignoring him, only speaking to him through Harry or half- hearted insults.

"Just take it."

"What? I have a lot of work to do-" Her protests died down as she saw the card he was motioning for her to take. "What's this?" She asked, her eyebrows raised.

"Oh, just take it already!"

"Fine, fine." She rolled her eyes and opened the card. Messily scrawled were the words, "I'm sorry."

She flipped it back to the front and studied it. Someone had crudely drawn a curly brunette and a fiery redhead standing side by side and waving.

"Who drew this?" she asked.

"Me." He muttered as he scratched the back of his neck. "I'm not much of a drawer, sorry, but-"

"Fine."

"Huh?"

"You're forgiven. Now go away. I have a lot of work to do." She let the card fall to the table as she picked up her quill.

"Jeez, I put a lot of time into that card. You could at least pretend to like it." He walked away, shaking his head furiously.

He didn't notice her pick up the card and smile at it fondly before slipping it into her bag.__

Oh Oh Oh Oh  
Hold on baby you're losing it  
The water's high you're jumping in to it  
And letting go and no one knows

"Hermione? Hermione!"

"What?" she snapped as she wrote frantically on spare pieces of parchment.

"What's got you so stressed? Why are you so worried?" His sapphire eyes widened as he watched her hand scribble across the parchment at an inhumane speed.

"You don't understand, Ronald! Nobody understands!" She looked up and Ron was shocked to see that she looked on the verge of tears. "Nobody understands!" She hiccupped slightly and wiped at her wet eyes.

"But I want to understand, Hermione!" He caught her wrist as she dipped her quill in the ink again.

"No, Ron, you can't!" Her voice broke with stifled sobs. "You can't."

_That you cry but you don't tell anyone  
That you might not be the golden one  
And you're tied together with a smile but you're coming undone_

Hermione always studied hard but this was crazy. She stopped sleeping, choosing to take a potion to c counter-act fatigue instead. She began to live in the library, skipping meals. It took hours of coaxing from Harry and Ron to persuade her to take a small break and Ron noticed that she was getting thinner and paler as the days passed.

Ron sat next to her one day as she finally gave in and fell asleep over her Potions textbook. The moon shone through the windows and she looked so peaceful for once, her face calm and relaxed. He stared at her for a moment before leaning forward and brushing some strands of hair out of her face.

"Why are you doing this to yourself, Hermione? Why?"__

Oh Oh Oh Oh  
You're tied together with a smile but you're coming undone

Ron lay on the hospital bed. Harry was long asleep and he and Hermione sat together, silent but comforted by the other's presence.

"Why didn't you tell me about the time- turner?" He asked her in a hushed whisper, careful not to disturb Harry's sleep.

"I couldn't, Ronald. I wasn't allowed to!" She defended herself though her eyes remained downcast.

"Oh, really? You couldn't trust me? Me?" He let some of his anger creep into his voice. Maybe she would understand how betrayed she felt then.

"I'm sorry," she said sorrowfully, finally letting her soft brown eyes flicker up to his face. His stony gaze relaxed slightly as he noted how truly regretful she appeared.

"It's okay," he muttered. "It's just that you've been tied together with a smile this whole year and now I finally now why."

"Tied together with a smile?" she asked, her brow furrowed.

"Yeah. You were always smiling even when you felt sad and it was like you were afraid to show anyone how you really felt." Watching realization creep into her eyes, he hurriedly added, "I heard the phrase from some Muggle song Ginny was listening to and I thought it fit you perfectly.

"Oh, Ron!" She flung herself onto him and for once he let his arms wrap around her and squeeze her back with the same enthusiasm. "I didn't think anyone noticed or that anyone cared."

"Hermione." He pulled back slightly to look her in the face. "No matter what, I always notice and I always care."

**A/N" Cheesy ending, I know. What, no kiss? I figured that since they're only in third year a hug would be enough. ;) I don't think it was written too well so I'll probably go back and rewrite it later. Oh well. 2,343 words [not counting the ANs] I think I deserve a review, don't you? XD R&R please!**


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